"A decade after the financial crisis of 2007-2008, it's clear that economics had failed and needs to go back to the drawing board. David Orrell argues that we can use the insights of quantum theory to create a 'real-world' economics that works for us all. Surprisingly, mainstream economists barely mention the role of money, but money is in fact a complex quantum system. Just as a quantum physicist will tell you that a subatomic particle doesn't have a fixed location or momentum until someone takes a measurement of it, a quantum economist will say that your house has a value but no actual price until somebody buys it. Quantum mechanics shows that the universe is far more unpredictable than had been supposed. Similarly, quantum economics presents an economy that is not efficient, fair and stable, but complex, entangled and creative, and that tends toward inequity and instability - very much like the world we live in."--Back cover.

Summary

A decade after the financial crisis, there is a growing consensus that economics has failed and needs to go back to the drawing board. David Orrell argues that it has been trying to solve the wrong problem all along.

Economics sees itself as the science of scarcity. Instead, it should be the science of money (which plays a surprisingly small role in mainstream theory). And money is a substance that turns out to have a quantum nature of its own.

Just as physicists learn about matter by studying the exchange of particles at the subatomic level, so economics should begin by analysing the nature of money-based transactions. Quantum Economics therefore starts with the meaning of the phrase 'how much' - or, to use the Latin word, quantum .

From quantum physics to the dualistic properties of money, via the emerging areas of quantum finance and quantum cognition, this profoundly important book reveals that quantum economics is to neoclassical economics what quantum physics is to classical physics - a genuine turning point in our understanding.

Author Notes

David Orrell is a scientist and writer of books on science and economics. According to the Sunday Times 'Orrell is an engaging and witty writer, adept at explaining often complicated theories in clear language.' His latest books are The Money Formula: Dodgy Finance, Pseudo Science , and How Mathematicians Took Over the Markets , written with Paul Wilmott; and Economyths: 11 Ways Economics Gets It Wrong (Icon Books, 2017).